The "Hansel and Gretal" fairy tale has the thinly veiled message of if you kill the rich, you can become the rich, and that the male figure always comes out on top because women are evil and worthless. The stepmother at the beginning of the story was the one who swayed the father into the decision of sending his children into the woods to fend for themselves. Even though the father was involved n the choice as much as the stepmother, he is ultimately rewarded quite well in the end. The children come back to him with jewels and they live lavishly together, with no one seeming to remember his part in their abandonment. Hansel and Gretal's adventures show the cycle of greed lesson. They start off happy with what they have, even if it is not much. However, as soon as they see the temptation's of the witch's house, they have no qualms about stuffing their faces with as much food as they can eat. After being caught, Hansel is being extremely overfed, and he knows it is so he can be eaten, but that does not stop him from eating it all. Finally, after Gretal thwarted the witch's plan and pushed her into the oven, they did not simply run away, they chose instead to take all of the jewels they could carry. Perhaps they felt that they deserved something from the witch after what she did, or maybe they just wanted shiny things for their father. As soon as they stole the riches and went from drastically poor to exceedingly wealthy, they set the stage for a repetition of this same tale, but with them as the ones who do not want to share. It will not be long before they turn on each other. The tale captures the society's general negative views on the women and the poor. Only people without money could be so desperate and cruel as to leave their children to die, and only a woman would be the one to think of it.
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